Experience Does Not Guarantee Wisdom

Ahem. More articulately, let me start by saying I have visited the following thoughts several times because they're so counter-intuitive I need to keep reviewing their truth.

We think someone who has experienced racism would never discriminate against another, but they do. We think someone who is old would heave learned so much they would never be foolish, but they are. We think someone who has been abused would never be cruel, but they are. We think if someone has given birth they would surely be compassionate, but they aren't always. We think someone who has suffered due to war, they would understand its gravity, but they don't. We think someone who has been educated must be smart, but they aren't.

Maybe it's me or maybe it's American society's constant experience with people masquerading as experts who are as wrong often as not. Whatever the source, it is apparent that experiencing something does not translate into wisdom. Without a skill for appreciation, thoughtfulness or reflection, a willingness or an ability to change, a person could go through the most spiritual experience possible and still come out the other end as they began, as a superficial jackass.

Speaking of John McCain, he's running for president on a platform that he's experienced with war and he knows how horrific it is, therefore he expects us to take the intuitive route and believe that with all that experience, he must understand about war, be good at it, and understand its cost.

Yet he clearly doesn't. He made a joke of bombing Iran. Then when questioned about it, he said it was a joke and if you don't understand to get a life. It's all on video here.

No, John. No. You get a fucking life. If you're as impacted by the horrors of war as your ad 'Safe' claims, you would never, even in jest, have sung a tune to Bomb Iran. Clearly you didn't learn anything from your Vietnam years. If you understood war, you would understand that killing another human isn't something to joke about, even if they deserve it. You would understand that bombs don't kill only your enemies, they kill innocents caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Finally, leaving all that aside, if you don't mind yukkin' it up about killing your fellow human being, then you need to be kept away from any weapon and probably even sharp objects.

One more thing, John. There's this thing you would probably call The You Tube, where anyone can see your self-contradictory words, line them up and compare. Check it out. Maybe you'll learn something about yourself, but I doubt it.

P.S. As you can see, my latest fad is video remixing, just not with Adobe Premiere Elements 4.0. It worked great for a couple days before it went into constant crash mode. So I had to trade it in for Ulead VideoStudio 11.5 Plus. Ah, much better. No crashes yet. Anyway, I just had to mention that because last blog I gave Adobe a plug. Consider the plug retracted!

1 Comments:

Noobulator said...

I feel sorry for John McCain. Things he's done in the past 8 years were extremely encouraging. Since he became the republican nominee, his integrity folded like a bad poker hand. I think maybe when they realized he was going to be the GOP nominee, GOP operatives took him into a room and make some stark threats, like this: "If you don't toe the party line, you will lose your base and lose the election."

Now he seems like a Bush clone. This tactic worked for Bush in 2004. Will it work again? Republicans seem to think the public is really stupid, and sadly, McCain is on board with that.